Borgo Santo Pietro

Borgo Santo Pietro lies in open country near Siena and the Abbey of San Galgano, an 800-year-old villa that once sheltered medieval pilgrims travelling near the Via Francigena. Danish owners Jeanette and Claus Thottrup found it in ruins in 2001, spent seven years restoring it with Italian craftsmen and opened in 2008; close to 300,000 plants now fill 13 acres of gardens. Rooms are furnished with antiques gathered across Italy, made-to-measure beds and hand-painted frescoes, and the suites open onto private terraces and gardens with outdoor fireplaces, a few with their own pools. Around the house is a working organic farm of some 300 acres, with vineyards, a dairy and livestock, supplying about 80 per cent of Saporium's kitchen. There, chef Ariel Hagen holds a one-MICHELIN-star rating for tasting menus drawn from the estate and from Tuscany's tradition of medicinal herbs. Trattoria sull'Albero is built around two oak trees, the estate runs a cooking school and a Fermentation Lab, and the spa makes its Seed to Skin products from plants grown on the farm. The sailing yacht Satori can be chartered in the Mediterranean. There are 22 rooms and suites.